Made in Maine: Pancake mix made in Skowhegan

Photo / Courtesy of Maine Grains Maine Grains, which is based in Skowhegan, produces flour sourced from a farmer network throughout the Northeast.

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By Alexis Wells

Situated in the heart of Skowhegan in the old 14,000-square-foot former Somerset County prison is the home of Maine Grains, the maker of multigrain, buckwheat and spelt pancake mixes.

The person behind Maine Grains is CEO Amber Lambke, who has also been a catalyst for related startups. Maine Grains, co-founded in 2012 by Lambke and Michael Scholz, serves bakers, brewers, chefs and consumers with fresh-milled, organic and heritage grains sourced from Maine farmers.

Maine Grains pancake mixes feature organic wheat, organic buckwheat, organic spelt, organic rye, organic malted barley, and organic corn in three different pancake mix flavors: Multigrain Malted Pancakes, Buckwheat Pancakes and Spelt Pancakes.

Each one of the flours is sourced a network of growers in the Northeast — from organic farmers to the malt houses of Maine — to be milled in downtown Skowhegan.

Maine Grains works with 20 distributors and 45 growers, including McLaughlin Farms in South Paris, Liberation Farms in Wales, Rusted Rooster Farm in Parkman and Buck Farms in Mapleton. It also works with Blue Ox Malthouse in Lisbon Falls.

The grains are then milled fresh on stone mills and then blended with baking powder, kosher salt and organic cane sugar.

“Flour is milled on our slow-turning millstones every day, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., keeping the flour cool and essential components intact,” says Lambke. “Our millers can mill about 2,000 pounds of flour on each set of millstones and we now have three sets of stones in our facility.”

Once milled, the flour takes a trip to machinery that blends, bags and vacuum seals the pancake mixes to preserve freshness.

Lambke said modern industrial white flour removes the most nutritious and flavorful parts of the grain — the bran and germ — often stripping away fiber, vitamins, minerals and healthy oils. The stone milling process keeps these components intact, delivering flours that nourish as nature intended.

This process is different from most mixes found on the shelves at the grocery store. Lambke says traditional white pancake mixes on the store shelves come from flour bred for yield and uniformity, not flavor.

Maine Grains pancake mixes can be found at several Maine stores, including the Milkhouse in Monmouth, Rosemont Market locations in Portland, the Maine Grains Dry Goods shop in Skowhegan, Uncle Dean’s in Waterville, LeRoux Kitchen in Portland and Royal River Natural Foods in Freeport.